Even after the U.S. Congress bowed to the Temperance movement and passed the Volstead Act in 1919, outlawing the sale of alcohol and ushering in the era of Prohibition, beer taps never ran dry and stills were anything but. With the liquor industry pushed underground, organized crime stepped up to keep cocktail glasses overflowing – and brought a slew of unintended consequences, as well.

Join us for a conversation with historian Greg Caggiano, who will detail how mob-backed bootleggers and rumrunners kept alcohol flowing in “Mobsters and Mayhem: Prohibition on the Jersey Shore” on Sunday, January 25. This free event, open to the public, will be held at 1 p.m. at the Lower Makefield Township Community Center, 1550 Oxford Valley Road, in Yardley, Pa. The 90-minute presentation will include an intermission. 

Caggiano will share tales of local legends, corruption, and mob violence with a special focus on the northern Jersey Shore, where underworld overlords operated in the shelter of sedate towns designed to be religious retreats. The program will also feature an examination of New Jersey’s connection to Vito Genovese, the organized crime kingpin who inspired Mario Puzo’s The Godfather.

An award-winning historian and Monmouth County, N.J., resident, Caggiano has served on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Highlands Historical Society, a town that at one time held the dubious distinction of the “bootlegging capital of the East Coast.” His years of research include interviews with descendants of notables directly involved – on both sides of the law. Learn more about Greg Caggiano at gregcaggiano.com.